OK, But as a retired teacher myself, may I suggest that those who write for young people should also 'know young people'!!

Best wishes for the book

Neil F.

Crikey - yes, of course. I meant if any group of any people to choose a book for young people to get an award, teachers are great judges in that respect and thus I feel pleased they chose ours. There aren't many children's poetry awards... in fact, there are two.

Children's poets are definitely in touch with their own inner child and in touch with modern children too... you have to be.

OK, But as a retired teacher myself, may I suggest that those who write for young people should also 'know young people'!!

Best wishes for the book

Neil F.

Crikey - yes, of course. I meant if any group of any people to choose a book for young people to get an award, teachers are great judges in that respect and thus I feel pleased they chose ours. There aren't many children's poetry awards... in fact, there are two.

Children's poets are definitely in touch with their own inner child and in touch with modern children too... you have to be.

OK, But as a retired teacher myself, may I suggest that those who write for young people should also 'know young people'!!

Best wishes for the book

Neil F.

Crikey - yes, of course. I meant if any group of any people to choose a book for young people to get an award, teachers are great judges in that respect and thus I feel pleased they chose ours. There aren't many children's poetry awards... in fact, there are two.

Children's poets are definitely in touch with their own inner child and in touch with modern children too... you have to be.

Thanks, Claudia. I was trying to isolate one bit of Liz's post by using the quote thing... disastrously!! But I'm sure somebody once explained that there is a way of deleting the whole post. Simply highlighting it and pressing delete doesn't work - for me anyway

Thanks, Carol. Hope you're right!!

Liz: It was only because your comment seemed to suggest 'only' teachers 'know young people' whereas writers for young people should, in my view, be equally well informed - if only to get through to them.

Interestingly, whilst as a teacher, I wrote for children within the context of the school itself (Plays, for example), I've never been drawn to writing for them outside that context. And anyway the classroom is now a distant, but not unpleasant, memory - I retired 1990. I know... Ancient!!

Oh, not that ancient. I was just being ... i can't find the word. Because i've had 5 glasses of Prosecco. umm... worried that you thought I didn't write well for children. This is probably indecipherable. Prosecco. Very strong stuff. Been to a wedding.

Neil, to quote just a bit of a message you need to get it into the comment box and then delete the bits you don't want. I think what you were doing was to highlight just the bit you wanted and then clicking quote, hoping only that bit would transfer? That's perfectly logical - but doesn't work.

I'm a tiny bit soberer now. Not used to that sort of thing in the daytime and it kept getting refilled and that is fatal. Well, not fatal, but unwise.

I have found that I tend to imagine so well what it will be like, for instance when a book is about to be published, that when it happens it doesn't seem that exciting, because I've been though it before. I am excited about this and I think it must be because i didn't expect it.

Yes. I have rsvp'd. I am hoping to go, but I am also singing in our choir's 10th anniversary concert that night. They wrote to us all to ask if we could be there, but Jan and Michaela can't, sadly, so i guess i will have to.